A Big Rapids woman, who is a student at Columbia University, is proving that everyone can do their part to help those impacted by this pandemic.
Along with a classmate, they’ve created a website that connects health care providers with local crafters making homemade masks.
“Small towns like Big Rapids have started to sew homemade masks for healthcare facilities in this time of need,” said Arya Rao, one of the creators of .
Rao is back home in Big Rapids.
She and a classmate talked about how great it was that so many people are stepping up to make masks for hospital workers.
“We realized that there was no centralized platform for them to get their masks to those facilities. They were just kind of searching all over the internet. They didn’t really have one place to go to get that done,” explained Rao.
That’s when they created “Mask Up”.
Anyone making masks can go to their website, click ‘makers’ and fill out some information.
“Once you provide us with that, we’re able to match you with a healthcare facility in your area. For example, a lot of the masks that have been coming out of Big Rapids have been going to Munson Cadillac,” said Rao.
But it goes even further.
“We’ve been able to do this local matching all across the U.S. For example, we have a hospital in New York that we’re connected to. We’ve got volunteers working all across the nation,” said Rao.
However she reminds us that these masks are not replacements for necessary n-95 masks.
“Some hospitals have n-95 masks but are still requesting the homemade masks as a supplement so they’ll wear the n-95 and put homemade masks over top it,” explained Rao.
Rao says she loves to see people come together in a time of crisis.
“I know being quarantined, being in self-isolation, that kind of thing can make you feel that you really can’t do anything but that’s not true. Everyone has a part to play in ending this pandemic and I think that’s pretty cool,” said Rao.
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